Australia must help

There is now widespread recognition that much of Australia's economic and political future is tied up with the nations of East Asia. The past few years have been good for both Australia and its regional trade partners, with high economic growth rates and a reasonably benign political climate ensuring that the good times rolled. Now some of our northern neighbors face an environmental experience that is economically damaging, dangerous to aviation, unhealthy and symptomatic of the need to rethink some land management practices: the smoke haze and air pollution that comes from uncontrolled fires in parts of Indonesia such as Sumatra and Kalimantan, exacerbated by drought conditions.

In Indonesia, where there are fears that drought -- a legacy of the aberrant weather pattern known as the El Nino effect -- will have a severe impact on the next rice harvest, authorities have declared the smoke haze generated by these forest fires a disaster. In response to pressure from Malaysia and Singapore, the Indonesian Government has banned the common practice of burning off to clear land for cultivation. Small landholders have used this approach for centuries, but it is large-scale logging operations and the huge clearing of forests for oil-palm plantations that are behind the worst fires.

Drought and bushfires are no strangers to Australia. Rural communities in particular are acutely aware of the impact drought can have on their livelihoods. But drought is not something we automatically associate with northern neighbors such as Papua New Guinea, Indonesia, Malaysia and The Philippines, where the image is more of lush rainforests. As a neighbor with concerns about the environmental, economic and social wellbeing of the region, Australia should offer technical and practical assistance to overcome Indonesia's smoke haze problem and should encourage measures to limit its recurrence. One step is to help small farmers move away from slash and burn cultivation. But the bigger test for Indonesia is to stop well-connected interests in logging and plantations from abusing the regional environment through huge burnoffs.

-- The Australian